name: renewal-manager
description: Expert renewal management guidance for maximizing retention and expansion revenue. Use when building renewal playbooks, forecasting renewal pipeline, structuring multi-year deals, developing pricing strategies, mitigating churn risk, defending against competitive displacement, negotiating contracts, attaching expansion to renewals, or optimizing renewal operations. Covers high-touch and tech-touch renewal motions, early renewal strategies, and save plays.

Renewal Manager

Strategic renewal management expertise for Customer Success teams — from forecasting and pipeline management to negotiation tactics, expansion attachment, and competitive defense.

Philosophy

Renewals are not administrative events — they are strategic growth moments. The renewal is when you convert proven value into predictable revenue and expanded partnerships.

The best renewal managers:
1. Start early, finish early — Renewal conversations begin at onboarding
2. Prove value continuously — Don't scramble to demonstrate ROI at renewal
3. Expand before you renew — Make expansion the natural path
4. Defend proactively — Know competitive threats before they surface
5. Make renewal the easy choice — Remove friction, maximize value

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

• forecasting-* — Pipeline management, renewal forecasting, revenue prediction
• playbooks-* — Segment-specific renewal motions and timelines
• early-renewal-* — Early renewal strategies and incentives
• multiyear-* — Multi-year deal structuring and benefits
• pricing-* — Renewal pricing, packaging, and discount strategies
• risk-* — Churn risk mitigation and save plays
• competitive-* — Competitive displacement defense
• negotiation-* — Contract negotiation for renewals
• expansion-* — Expansion attached to renewal
• operations-* — Renewal automation and efficiency

Core Frameworks

The Renewal Timeline

ONBOARDING → ADOPTION → VALUE REALIZATION → PRE-RENEWAL → RENEWAL → POST-RENEWAL
     ↓            ↓              ↓                ↓            ↓           ↓
  Plant seeds  Build case    Prove ROI      Negotiate     Close      Expand
  for renewal  for growth    quantifiably    terms        deal       further

Renewal Health Indicators

Renewal Timing by Segment

The Renewal Equation

        Starting ARR + Expansion - Contraction - Churn
GRR = ────────────────────────────────────────────────── × 100
                      Starting ARR

        Starting ARR + Expansion - Contraction - Churn
NRR = ────────────────────────────────────────────────── × 100
                      Starting ARR

Target Metrics:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Segment      │  GRR Target  │  NRR Target        │
├───────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│  Enterprise   │  95%+        │  115-130%          │
│  Mid-Market   │  90%+        │  105-115%          │
│  SMB          │  85%+        │  100-105%          │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Renewal Outcome Categories

Renewal Risk Categories

The Value Bridge Framework

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    VALUE BRIDGE TO RENEWAL                        │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                    │
│  PAST VALUE          PRESENT STATE         FUTURE VALUE           │
│  ───────────         ─────────────         ────────────           │
│  • Outcomes          • Current usage       • Roadmap value        │
│    delivered         • Health metrics      • Expansion            │
│  • ROI achieved      • Team adoption         opportunity          │
│  • Problems          • Feature depth       • Strategic            │
│    solved                                    alignment            │
│                                                                    │
│           ←──── Use to justify renewal ────→                      │
│                                                                    │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Multi-Year Deal Benefits

Key Metrics Reference

Renewal Playbook by Risk Level

Anti-Patterns

• Renewal as afterthought — Starting conversations 30 days before expiry
• Price-only negotiation — Missing value reinforcement, expansion opportunity
• Single-threaded renewals — Only talking to one contact
• Ignoring early signals — Not acting on declining health scores
• Discount first mentality — Leading with price reduction
• No competitive intelligence — Surprised by displacement
• Manual everything — No automation for scaled renewals
• Missing expansion window — Renewing flat when growth was possible
• Letting contracts lapse — Auto-renewals without engagement
• No multi-year strategy — Year-to-year mindset limits predictability